Oral history interview with Izumi Hirano, 2013 June 17.

Izumi Hirano was born in 1929 in a small village or "camp" on the Island of Hawaii and returned to Hiroshima with his family, including an older sister and younger brother, in 1933 at the age of four. He reminisces about his childhood in Hiroshima, including searching for crystals in the mountains and hunting for eels. He discusses how his family raised chickens and was able to eat their eggs or trade them for other food during the war. He talks about his educational experiences and remembers being asked to help in the war effort in junior high because he was a Nisei born in Hawaii. He was at school, taking special classes to learn to be an engineer, when the bomb was dropped; he remembers seeing people coming from the center of town naked and covered in burns. He talks about how his father died in the bombing; his lungs were punctured by glass but he lived long enough to make sure his family was safe. He describes life after the war, including the dugout shelter his family had prepared with water and honey. He talks about his cousin, who came to Japan as part of the occupying forces, and how he might have actually been his older brother. He was able to return to Hawaii in 1949 with the help of some family friends and got a job at a poultry farm, but he got a lung disease and couldn't work, so he went to and graduated from high school; he later put his engineering background to good use throughout the rest of his career. He talks about meeting his wife at night school and his relationship with her. He talks about starting an association for hibakusha in Hawaii in 1980, but he agrees that, in his experience, it is mostly women who are involved in hibakusha support groups.

Recorded 2013 June 17